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Stewed Artichokes
(Carciofi in stufato) Wash the artichokes and cut the hard part of the leaves (the top). Widen the leaves and insert a hash composed of bread crumbs, parsely, salt, pepper and oil. Place the artichokes in the saucepan standing on their stalk, one touching the other. Cover them with water and let them cook for two hours or more. When the leaves are easily detached they are cooked. 31
A plain braise of whole stuffed artichokes, given in the terse style of the period. The one thing to fix is the timing: two hours will reduce a modern globe artichoke to grey pulp.
- Cooking timeTrimmed globe artichokes standing in liquid are done in 35-50 minutes depending on size, not two hours. Use the book's own test — an outer leaf pulls away with no resistance — and start checking at 30 minutes.
- TrimmingCut the top inch off, snap away the tough outer leaves, and peel the stalk rather than removing it; the stem is the same flesh as the heart. Rub cut surfaces with lemon or hold them in acidulated water, as they brown within minutes.
- The "hash"Breadcrumbs, chopped parsley, salt, pepper and olive oil worked into a coarse damp mixture. For four artichokes, about a cup of dry crumbs, a large handful of parsley and 4-5 tablespoons of oil. Some Italian versions add a clove or two of chopped garlic; this one does not.
- Widening the leavesPress the artichoke crown-down against the board to spring the leaves open, then push the stuffing down between them with your thumb. Do this before the artichokes go in the pan, not after.
- The pan and the liquidPack them upright and touching in a pan just wide enough to hold them, so they brace each other. "Cover them with water" gives a boiled result; adding a few more tablespoons of oil to the water and covering the pan produces the braised texture the dish is after. Some cooks use half water, half dry white wine.
- Stalk downStanding them on the stalk keeps the stuffing in place and keeps the artichokes from tipping. Do not turn or stir them at any point.
- YieldOne artichoke per person as an antipasto or side; the recipe scales to whatever fits the pan in a single layer. Serve warm or at room temperature, with the pan juices spooned over.
- Section placementIn the original this appears to sit outside a vegetable chapter, which reflects the book's loose organisation of meatless dishes rather than anything about the recipe itself. No eggs are involved.
Maria Gentile's The Italian Cook Book (1919) was written for American households and compresses Italian home cooking into recipes of three or four lines, assuming the reader already knows what a finished dish should look like. Stuffed and braised artichokes in this style are common across central and southern Italy, where the globe artichoke has been a major spring vegetable since at least the fifteenth century; the crumb-and-parsley filling is the standard frugal stuffing, using stale bread rather than meat. The instruction to stand them on their stalks, packed tight, is the traditional method, and something close to it can still be found in Roman and Neapolitan cooking today. The two-hour cooking time likely reflects the larger, tougher, more mature artichokes of the period, and a kitchen where a covered pot at the back of a coal range was simply left alone.